Science at Chapel HiIL His recent research work centers on the study of activity systems as these relate to land use systems.
RICHARD K. BRAIL is Assistant Professor at the Center forUrban Studies of the University of Chicago. His current interests center on modeling systems for the simulation of urban phenomena, and he has recently developed prototype models for the simulation of human activity systems.Out of the confusion surrounding the many complex and critical problems besetting the urban scene in the US today, one development has occurred which offers some hope that these problems may some day be brought under control. This development is the shift from conceiving these problems in isolated and segmental form to approaching them in an urban systems framework, inclusive of both a behavioral and an environmental perspective. In this paper, we review a rationale which we believe offers possibilities of relating environment and behavior in a systems framework; we then draw on the results of a recent sampling survey of metropolitan United States residents to make some tentative observations about these concepts based on a first stage analysis of our data. This approach stresses the importance of linking two traditional emphases-one being that of the environmentalist who takes an interest in behavior as a form of response when environment is allowed to vary, and the other being that of the behavioralist who is preoccupied with variables that regulate behavior and who usually prefers to hold environment constant. The environmentalist would be happy to work with one homogenized subject, and the behavioralist would be happy to work with one standard environment. As will soon be discovered, we propose an approach which recognizes that there is continuous variation in both.
and Regional Studies at Chapel Hill. His research for the past several years has focused on human time allocation in the urban scene, including studies of f national, metropolitan, and community scope.Urban planners have long been accustomed to making analyses and developing proposals as though residents of the metropolitan area were homogeneous in their lifeways and value orientations. The preoccupation with people as cohorts in demographic studies appears to have diverted attention from looking at variations in the social characteristics of the people. Assuming basic standards of health, safety, and general welfare are met, it is increasingly clear that facilities and services must be more closely attuned to the life styles of client groups. Looking toward the development of a greater sensitivity to such concerns in urban planning, this article uses data on the allocation of time to different activities in the course of a day by residents of metropolitan areas for the purposes of studying activity patterns of urbanites.
Microcomputers are becoming essential tools in urban planning This paper outlines a set of topics which are important to the understanding of the role of the micro in planning and which can be introduced into the classroom. These topics include electronic spreadsheets, programming languages, and data base management systems The topics are discussed in terms of class use and student response
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.